“FOR ME SOMETIMES HE DOES SOMETHING
ON THE TRACK, ESPECIALLY IN THE RACE, THAT
MEANS YOU MUST BE A GENIUS. YOU MUST
HAVE SOMETHING MORE THAN THE OTHERS TO
DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS, TO BE HONEST..."
The 'epic' battle at Laguna Seca in 2011 saw Stoner win the race
GABBARINI
“And (he likes) a balanced bike, not too
much on the front, not too much on the
rear.” What Stoner likes as a standard
set-up is “difficult to say, because we don’t
have a benchmark, another bike to make a
comparison, but nothing so particular. He’s
really strong on the brakes, so he needs a
quite strong front spring, sure. And he is
also quite strong on the brake system, but
we cannot do more than this because it’s
the biggest (front disk).”
Stoner also uses the rear brake more
than most riders.
What Stoner does like is steering with
the rear tyre, which is why the increase in
engine size to 1000cc favours him.
“More torque on the bottom means
that you can make the bike slide more
easily,” Gabbarini said. “You can control it a
little better, but just for this characteristic
of Casey for me, he was, how to say?
Maybe one step more than the others,
especially in 800. Because 800, our engine
in particular was quite aggressive. So you
need to be very careful and very sensitive
to get on the throttle when you are leaned
over. And Casey on this was really, really
good.”
What Gabbarini also admires about
Stoner is his work ethic. As soon as the
track’s open he’s ready to go and on
the gas. His early laps are so fast and
consistent they’re often unsettling to the
other riders.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, usually yes. This is his
style,” Gabbarini said. “He didn’t waste,
I think, one second of his time cruising
around here. It’s also good for us, because
you know every millimeter you change the
bike he’s trying to push 100%. He’s not just
cruising or waiting on something.”
Nor does he waste the team’s time
making unnecessary changes. The Repsol
Honda RC213V is a more highly developed
motorcycle than the Ducatis he rode for
four years, which means that he often
makes very few changes over the course of
a race weekend.
“For me, it doesn’t matter,” Gabbarini
said of whether Stoner makes changes. “I
usually say, we are not trying to make the
best bike possible, but the bike that the
rider likes to ride. And so if he feels good
with the bike, it’s OK. If he doesn’t feel
good you can also change everything for
him, no problem. Because he tries again
and if it’s better, OK. If not we come back
in another direction.”
Stoner was the undisputed master of the
800cc era, winning 33 races, 33 poles, and
bookending the era with titles in 2007 and
2011. And with the switch to 1000s Stoner
has continued winning, four times before
his season was interrupted by the crash in
the Red Bull Indy GP.
Dovi once said that Stoner was the
fastest rider, but not the best racer. The
distinction was somewhat lost on Gabbarini,
who agreed “100 percent that he is the
fastest rider. For me he’s also a genius
during the race, because sometimes he
changes.
“If you, for example, think about Laguna
Seca (2011). Everybody said, what
happened? Because he was third and it
looks like he’s in difficulty. And then in a
few laps he overtakes two other riders,”
Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo, “and
goes,” and wins an epic battle that many
saw as the turning point in the 2011
championship.
“For me sometimes he does something
on the track, especially in the race, that
means you must be a genius. You must
have something more than the others to
do something like this, to be honest. So for
me, also during the race, also in general, he
is really, really good.”
41
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